


Someone Had To Stop The Rain

by Kira_K



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon typical body horror, Coda, Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-02
Updated: 2015-07-02
Packaged: 2018-04-07 07:33:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4254756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kira_K/pseuds/Kira_K
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And then 3D bone implants were a thing and Tony could chose to not have a giant hole in his chest. Maybe they could figure out the lung bits as well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Someone Had To Stop The Rain

**Author's Note:**

> The fic got away from me a bit. I wanted to explain why would Tony do what he did at the end of IM3 and then it kind of explained where was he through CA:WS and T:TDW and what he wants in AoU. 
> 
> So the fic contains spoilers for most of the Marvel movies up to Age of Ultron (and most probably the beginnings of Civil War as well.) Also, canon typical body horror, and Tony's self-flagellation, and background Pepper because Pepper is important. 
> 
>  
> 
> Title is from Aerosmith's Jaine's Got A Gun.

There was a big hole in his chest. Bones, part of a lung, flesh – all missing and just leaving a gaping hole where the ARC reactor could sit and be an unnecessarily powerful magnet. 

Then technology kind of came forth and made a leap and 3D printing was a thing and 3D printing of artificial bones became something Stark Industries invested a lot of in. He was a genius but he was no biologist – and bodies had this tendency to react oddly to anything that wasn’t usually part of them (see, palladium poisoning) – so it was best to leave bio-mechanical medical discoveries to people who had M.D. in front of their names. 

So Tony waited and built suits to cover all possible situations and just wanted a quiet weekend with Pepper and then Mandarin had happened. It was kind of his fault for not having the patience; of being a stubborn ass who refused to be coved – but he already had more than enough of being bullied and Mandarin was just another in the line of bullies who thought Tony would make a good victim. (‘Didn’t they teach anything in terrorist school?’ he asked Pepper, later, when they were cuddling on the couch. ‘Why wasn’t Tony Stark and SI and all whom he cared about on a blacklist for terrorists? Why couldn’t they just leave him alone? Wasn’t one exploded cave in Afghanistan and one exploded alien race enough?!’ And Pepper had no answers but she kind of curled closer to Tony and tightened her grip on his wrist and it was good enough to distract Tony from his grumbling.)

And then 3D bone implants were a thing and Tony could chose to not have a giant hole in his chest. Maybe they could figure out the lung bits as well. 

So he updated his will (Pepper wouldn’t be surprised to know she was the largest benefiter in case of Tony’s death) and signed a dozen waivers and poured more money into updating the hospital than he thought possible and then he went under in the largest possible secrecy. (Pepper was present to take care of removing the ARC reactor before anybody thought to scan it or steal it.) And the next thing he knew after throwing up as a side effect that he had a whole roll of bandage around his chest and no blue light and an ache more profound than anything he could remember despite the way morphine was dripping into his IV. And he was too weak to claw at his chest effectively but after a week of forced patience he was allowed to watch as the bandage was changed and he could see the scar tissue and there was something akin to bone under the first layers of knitting flesh and Tony was almost over the body horror issues he had before he realized that he could now never unsee the replaced sternum at its goriest. 

But there was no blue light and no gaping hole and Tony was as whole as he would get and Pepper was holding his hand and petting his hair as he forced his lungs into a regular pattern and tried to hold off the panic attack before it became too much. And then the days and weeks started to blur together and he was forced to do phys rehab and he was advised against any and all kinds of strenuous activity like hammering or sex for a long while and Tony just spent a lot of his time staring at the mirror and watching as the flesh healed over and hid away the inner, squishy things of his chest, like heart and lungs and blood vessels. And he wasn’t allowed to be a superhero when SHIELD’s new airships were blown off the sky; and he wasn’t allowed to be a superhero when London was attacked by aliens (and he wanted to make an appearance in a blue police box but Pepper was firm and didn’t allow any trolling when the stocks were still too unstable) and he was barely allowed to put on the armor when Steve asked for help in eliminating HYDRA and/or finding the lost sceptre of Loki.

So, Tony had enough time and rest to think about a way to replace Iron Man because if he wasn’t allowed to be – and nobody was going to get the tech aside of Rhodey and/or Pepper – and yet, Earth needed a way to be protected. And the Avengers were all good and great but Tony wasn’t young and what would happen in a hundred years when they were all dead? (Or in cryofreeze though Steve would probably pass it but that wasn’t the point.) The point was, Earth needed a defense system that was not depending on the continued lives of the Avengers and could function by itself and could understand the need to protect humanity, to protect Earth by any and all means. 

And Tony saw all the Terminator movies and remembered the way HAL-9000 had to kill its crew just to obey his orders –and yet he made the same mistakes and he was responsible for the death of thousands because he wanted something bigger and better. And nobody, no fucking body took him to task for destroying half of the capital of Sokovia. Just because he was Tony fucking Iron Man Stark. And nobody remembered that Iron Man’s first course of action was taking responsibility of the weapons Obie sold. So he would remind them; because while it wouldn’t give back the lives he and his creatures took, it would probably protect those who were still alive and maybe give them some kind of closure. 

He just had to figure out how.

 

~end~

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos, comments make my day. <3


End file.
